In the film “Back to the Future Part II,” Marty McFly travels from the year 1985 to Oct. 21, 2015. In honor of the date, Daily Bruin Sports brings you back in time to a game referenced in the movie.
On Nov. 12, 1955, UCLA football made an improbable last-minute comeback to beat Washington. In the movie, 2015 Biff Tannen travels back in time and listens to the radio broadcast of the game with his younger self. With a minute left, he correctly predicts the comeback.
The following story is the real game recap written by Daily Bruin Sports Editor Jerry Measer, as it was printed in 1955.
Kick Saves Grids, 19-17: Jim Decker’s Clutch Kick Gives Bruins Victory Over Washington
Jim Decker virtually kicked UCLA right into the Rose Bowl with a 35-yard field goal – the first of his career – in the final 18 seconds of play to give the Bruins a dramatic 19-17 victory over an inspired University of Washington team in one of the most spectacular games every (sic) played in the Coliseum.
The 45,519 hysterical fans stood for the final hectic quarter as the Bruins came from behind to win, when it seemed that Washington would spring the upset of the year, and almost annihilate any hopes the Bruins had of playing in the bowl.
Every Bruin rooter knew his team was going to win, but the question was how as the Huskies had the ball with some five minutes remaining on their 12 yard line after a final last ditch UCLA drive had failed for a first down by two inches.
But the Bruin line, playing like fanatics and seeing chances of victory slip away held the Huskies and by fourth down Washington had lost five yards back to the seven.
Then, leading by a three point margin Coach John Cherberg instructed quarterback Steve Roake to take a safety rather than let the Bruins get a running start on a punt.
It was now or never for UCLA. With the score 17-16 and 3m50s to play, Sam Brown took Dean Denoy’s kickoff on the 31 and moved to the Washington 46. Brown threw incomplete on first down then hit Ballard with the first Bruin completion of the day good for three yards.
Everything rested on the third down play and Brown raced around left end behind a cordon of blockers 20 yards to the 23. Now there was hope for the screeming (sic), yelling Bruin rooters.
Brown slipped off tackle to 19 and then completed a pass to Pete O’Garro down to the 13. With seconds ticking away Coach Red Sanders sent Doug Bradley into the game with instructions to hold the ball for Decker. This cost the Bruins a five yard penalty for too much (sic) time outs.
With 18 seconds left Bradley spotted the ball on the 25-yard line on the right side hash line and Decker calmly booted the ball through the uprights as utter pandemonium broke loose in the gigantic stadium.
After playing a terrible game in the first half, the combination of Deckers (sic) field goal, the return to action of Bob Davenport and the wildly cheering Bruin rooting section enabled UCLA to stage its dramatic comeback.
Of course the loss of Ronnie Knox on the first scrimmage play of the game didn’t help any. Knox sustained a broken leg and with him out of the game UCLA’s passing attack stopped. For the rest of the afternoon Washington put their halfbacks almost on the line of scrimmage and it’s mighty hard to run against an eight man line.
UCLA started out like it was going to make those 27 point odds look good. Decker recovered Jim Houston’s fumble on the Washington 44 and 11 plays later Doug Peters bulled his way to a score from one yard out. Brown converted.
By the end of the quarter everyone in the Coliseum knew that they were in for a good ball game as Washington was playing great football.
Lightning struck suddenly in the second quarter when Gerry McDougall’s pass intended for Johnny Hermann tipped Hermann’s fingertips and right into the hands of Husky Halfback Jim Jones who rambled 61 yards unmolested for the score. Derby converted and the score was tied. It marked the first time all year that a team had scored on UCLA in the second quarter.
But the Huskies struck again in the waning moments of the half as they drove from their 38 for a score aided by an unnecessary roughness penalty on UCLA that put the ball on the 23. Thirty seconds remained in the half as Roake stepped back and passed to Bob Herring in the far corner of the end zone for a TD.
UCLA came out for the second half fired up but Peters fumbled on the first play and Earl Monlux recovered on the Bruin 29. UCLA’s line held on and on fourth down Derby booted a beautiful 42-yard field goal to put Washington ahead 17-7.
Fullback Bob Davenport now entered the game for the first time and the Bruins looked like a new team as “Pogo’ (sic) and Brown led a 68-yard drive climaxed when when (sic) Davenport rammed for a score from one yard out. Brown’s conversion was good and UCLA was back in the ball game.
Late in the fourth quarter a Bruin surge fell short of a first down by two inches on the Washington 12 and the Huskies took over from where they intentionally grounded the ball for a safety.